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Song of The South
Song of the South is a 1946 American live-action/animated musical film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures, based on the Uncle Remus stories collected by Joel Chandler Harris. It was Disney's first feature film using live actors, who provide a sentimental frame story for several animated segments. The film depicts the character Uncle Remus, a former slave, cheerfully relating to several children, including the film's protagonist, the folk tales of the adventures of anthropomorphic Br'er Rabbit and his friends. The film's song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Song, is frequently used as part of Disney's montage themes, and has become widely used in pop culture. The film inspired the Disney theme park attraction Splash Mountain. The film's depiction of black former slaves and of race relations in Reconstruction Era Georgia has been controversial since its original release, and is now commonly regarded as racist. Consequently it has never been released in its entirety on home video in the United States. Setting The film is set on a plantation in the US state of Georgia, some distance from Atlanta. Although sometimes interpreted as taking place before the US Civil War, while slavery was still force in the region, the setting is the later Reconstruction Era, after slavery was abolished. Harris' original Uncle Remus stories were all set after the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery (Harris himself, born in 1845, was a racial reconciliation activist writer and journalist of the Reconstruction era). The film makes several indirect references to the Reconstruction era: clothing is in the newer late-Victorian style; Uncle Remus is free to leave the plantation at will; black field hands are sharecroppers, etc. Plot Seven-year-old Johnny is excited about what he believes to be a vacation at his grandmother's Georgia plantation with his parents, John Sr. and Sally. When they arrive at the plantation, he discovers that his parents will be living apart for a while, and he is to live in the country with his mother and grandmother while his father returns to Atlanta to continue his controversial editorship in the city's newspaper. Johnny, distraught because his father has never left him or his mother before, leaves that night under cover of darkness and sets off for Atlanta with only a bindle. As Johnny sneaks away from the plantation, he is attracted by the voice of Uncle Remus telling tales "in his old-timey way" of a character named Br'er Rabbit. Curious, Johnny hides behind a nearby tree to spy on the group of people sitting around the fire. By this time, word has gotten out that Johnny is gone and some plantation residents, who are sent out to find him, ask if Uncle Remus has seen the boy. Uncle Remus replies that he's with him. Shortly afterwards, he catches up with Johnny, who sits crying on a nearby log. He befriends the young boy and offers him some food for the journey, taking him back to his cabin. As Uncle Remus cooks, he mentions Br'er Rabbit again and the boy, curious, asks him to tell him more. After Uncle Remus tells a tale about Br'er Rabbit's attempt to run away from home, Johnny takes the advice and changes his mind about leaving the plantation, letting Uncle Remus take him back to his mother. Johnny makes friends with Toby, a little black boy who lives on the plantation, and Ginny Favers, a poor white neighbor. However, Ginny's two older brothers, Joe and Jake—who resemble Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear from Uncle Remus's stories, one being slick and fast-talking, the other big and a little slow—are not friendly at all; they constantly bully Ginny and Johnny. When Ginny gives Johnny a puppy, her brothers want to drown it. A rivalry breaks out among the three boys. Heartbroken because his mother won't let him keep the puppy, Johnny takes the dog to Uncle Remus and tells him of his troubles. Uncle Remus takes the dog in and delights Johnny and his friends with the fable of Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby, stressing that people shouldn't go messing around with something they have no business with in the first place. Cast *James Baskett as Uncle Remus *Bobby Driscoll as Johnny *Luana Patten as Ginny Favers *Glenn Leddy as Toby *Ruth Watrick as Sally *Lucile Watson as Grandmother *Hattie McDaniel as Aunt Tempy *Erik Rolf as John *Olivier Urbain as Mr. Favers *Mary Field as Mrs. Favers *Anita Brown as Maid *George Nokes as Jake Favers *Gene Holland as Joe Favers 'Voices' *Johnny Lee as Br'er Rabbit *James Baskett as Br'er Fox *Nick Stewart as Br'er Bear *Roy Glenn as Br'er Frog Animation There are three animated segments in the movie (in all, they last a total of 25 minutes). These animated sequences were later shown as stand-alone cartoon features on television. Each of these segments features at least one song that is heard in the various versions of Splash Mountain. *"Br'er Rabbit Runs Away": about 8 minutes, including the song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" *"Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby": about 12 minutes, interrupted with a short live-action scene about two thirds of the way into the cartoon, including the song "How Do You Do?" *"Br'er Rabbit's Laughing Place": about 5 minutes and the only segment that doesn't use Uncle Remus as an intro to its main story, including the song "Everybody's Got a Laughing Place" The last couple of minutes of the movie contain animation, as most of the cartoon characters show up in a live-action world to meet the live-action characters as they all sing "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", and in the last seconds of the movie, the real world is slowly merged into an animated variation as the main protagonists walk off into the sunset. Songs Nine songs are heard in the film, with four reprises. Nearly all of the vocal performances are by the largely African-American cast, and the renowned all-black Hall Johnson Choir sing four pieces: two versions of a blues number ("Let the Rain Pour Down"), one chain-reaction-style folk song, ("That's What Uncle Remus Said") and one spiritual ("All I Want"). The songs are, in film order, as follows: *'"Song of the South"' Written by Sam Coslow and Arthur Johnston; performed by the Disney Studio Choir *'"Uncle Remus Said"' Written by Eliot Daniel, Hy Heath, and Johnny Lange; performed by the Hall Johnson Choir *'"Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah"' Written by Allie Wrubel and Ray Gilbert; performed by James Baskett *'"Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" (reprise)' Performed by Bobby Driscoll *'"Who Wants to Live Like That?"' Written by Ken Darby and Foster Carling; performed by James Baskett *'"Let the Rain Pour Down" (uptempo)' Written by Ken Darby and Foster Carling; performed by the Hall Johnson Choir *'"How Do You Do?"' Written by Robert MacGimsey; performed by Johnny Lee and James Baskett *'"How Do You Do?" (reprise)' Performed by Bobby Driscoll and Glenn Leedy *'"Sooner or Later"' Written by Charles Wolcott and Ray Gilbert; performed by Hattie McDaniel *'"Everybody's Got a Laughing Place'" Written by Allie Wrubel and Ray Gilbert; performed by James Baskett and Nick Stewart *'"Let the Rain Pour Down" (downtempo)' Written by Ken Darby and Foster Carling; performed by the Hall Johnson Choir *'"All I Want"' Traditional, new arrangement and lyrics by Ken Darby; performed by the Hall Johnson Choir *'"Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" (reprise)' Performed by Bobby Driscoll, Luana Patten, Glenn Leedy, Johnny Lee, and James Baskett *'"Song of the South" (reprise)' Performed by the Disney Studio Choir "Let the Rain Pour Down" is set to the melody of "Midnight Special," a traditional blues song popularized by Lead Belly. The song title, "Look at the Sun," appeared in some early press books, though it is not actually in the film. The song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" was influenced by the chorus of the pre-Civil War folk song "Zip Coon", that is considered racist as it plays on an African American stereotype. Release The film premiered on November 12, 1946 at the Fox Theater in Atlanta. Walt Disney made introductory remarks, introduced the cast, then quietly left for his room at the Georgian Terrace Hotel across the street; he had previously stated that unexpected audience reactions upset him and he was better off not seeing the film with an audience. James Baskett was unable to attend the film's premiere because he would not have been allowed to participate in any of the festivities, as Atlanta was then a racially segregated city. The film grossed $3.3 million at the box office. 'Reissues' Song of the South was re-released in theatres several times after its original Walt Disney Pictures/RKO Pictures premiere, each time through Buena Vista Pictures and Marco Polo Distribution: in 1956; in 1972 for Disney's 50th anniversary; in 1973 as the second-half of a double bill with The Aristocats; in 1980 for the 100th anniversary of Harris' classic stories; in 1986 for the film's own 40th anniversary and in promotion of the upcoming Splash Mountain attraction at three of Disney's theme parks; and in 2014 for a return from a long-year hiatus. 'Home media' Disney Enterprises has avoided making the complete version of the film directly available on home video in the United States because the frame story was deemed controversial by studio management. Film critic Roger Ebert, who normally disdained any attempt to keep films from any audience, supported the non-release position, claiming that most Disney films become a part of the consciousness of American children, who take films more literally than do adults. However, he favored allowing film students to have access to the film. Over the years, Disney has made a variety of statements about whether and when the film would be re-released. In March 2010, Disney CEO Robert Iger stated that there were no plans to release the movie on DVD, calling the film "antiquated" and "fairly offensive". On November 15, 2010, Disney creative director Dave Bossert stated in an interview, "I can say there's been a lot of internal discussion about Song of the South. And at some point we're going to do something about it. I don't know when, but we will. We know we want people to see Song of the South because we realize it's a big piece of company history, and we want to do it the right way." Disney Enterprises has allowed key portions of the film to be issued on many VHS and DVD compilation videos in the U.S.. The film has been released on video in its entirety in various European, Latin American, and Asian countries—in the UK it was released on PAL VHS tape in 1982 and again in 1991, and in Japan it appeared on NTSC VHS, Beta, and laserdisc in 1985 then again in 1990 with subtitles during songs. (Under Japanese copyright law it is now in the public domain.) A NTSC laserdisc was released out of Hong Kong for the Chinese rental market. It appears to have been created from a PAL videotape, and has a 4% faster running time because of its PAL source, and thus also suffers from "frame ghosting". There are reports that this laserdisc is a bootleg, but it is a legitimate Disney (albeit poor quality) product. A bootleg version was released on DVD in China by BoYing. The release is of poor video/audio quality as well and includes a large blue animated logo that travels across the screen every 4 minutes and 45 seconds. While most foreign releases of the film are literal translations of the English title (Canción del Sur in Spanish, Mélodie du Sud in French, Melodie Van Het Zuiden in Dutch, Sången om södern in Swedish, A Canção do Sul in Portuguese, and Etelän laulu in Finnish), the German title Onkel Remus' Wunderland translates to "Uncle Remus' Wonderland", the Italian title I Racconti Dello Zio Tom translates to "The Stories of Uncle Tom", and the Norwegian title Onkel Remus forteller translates to "Storyteller Uncle Remus." Despite the film's lack of an official home video release directly to consumers in the United States, audio from the film—both the musical soundtrack and dialogue—were made widely available to the public from the time of the film's debut up through the late 1970s. In particular, many Book-and-Record sets were released, alternately featuring the animated portions of the film or summaries of the film as a whole. Unauthorized copies of the film have been released. See also *Walt Disney Pictures *Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment